DETROIT — Year after year, people in and around the Clarkston football program had to have felt like forces of all sorts were conspiring against the Wolves once the playoffs rolled around. Bad fortune and heartbreak in the playoffs had become the unfortunate staples of recent teams on the heels of so much regular season success.

But after last weekend’s breakthrough victory in the semifinals that sent Clarkston on its way to the state finals for the first time in school history, the Wolves were not about to let their rare opportunity for a championship slip away on Saturday.

Facing Novi Detroit Catholic Central in the Division 1 title game, Clarkston seized a controlling grip on the scoreboard early in the second half en route to capturing a program-affirming victory, 32-14.

“This one was for every kid that’s worn a uniform for us, every fan that sat out and froze their butt off, every parent that’s yelled and called me names. Whatever — This one was for C-Town,” Clarkston’s coach of 27 years, Kurt Richardson, said.

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By the late stages of the third quarter, the Wolves (13-1) had built up an 18-point lead through a combination of timely defensive stops and an offensive line that routinely opened gaping holes for senior running back Ian Eriksen to burst through.

Eriksen was an offensive force for the Wolves, capping off a dominant two-year varsity career with 267 yards of total offense, including 237 on the ground. He scored all three of his touchdowns in the second half to enable the Wolves to distance themselves enough to breathe relatively easily in the final quarter.

“We’ve got a great O-Line and I’ve played with those guys forever, since third grade. They’re big guys and they know how to do their jobs,” Eriksen said. “It feels good to be able to perform in this type of a game and to make it count.”

Not expected to be a low-scoring contest, it took nearly a full half for the game’s first points to be scored.

After forcing a Catholic Central punt midway through the second quarter, Clarkston took over at its own 9 yard line with 6:49 to play before halftime.

The Wolves then embarked on a length-of-the-field odyssey of a drive that spanned 17 plays and 91 yards. Along the way, critical third-down conversion catches were made by Eriksen — a one-handed snare along the sideline — and Austin Egler to reach the red zone.

The eventual touchdown came with 13 seconds remaining in the first half, as Zezula stood tall in the pocked and delivered a 15-yard dart to the goal line, which junior Shane Holler corralled with a defender marking him closely. The extra point sailed wide, however, leaving the Wolves’ halftime lead at 6-0.

After receiving the second-half kickoff, Clarkston moved methodically down field for an 80-yard touchdown drive to double its scoreboard advantage to 12-0. On third-and-two from the Shamrocks’ 37 yard line, Eriksen burst through a mammoth hole on the right side and escaped two defenders just before they converged on him.

Eriksen followed up with another 1-yard touchdown run on the following possession.

Then, in a position of desperation, Catholic Central got on the scoreboard by responding with an 80-yard drive at the tail end of the third quarter. Senior Dylan Roney plunged over a crowded goal line for a 2-yard touchdown run to draw the Shamrocks within 11 points briefly.

The Wolves’ offense struck again, however, with a 47-yard touchdown strike through the air from Zezula to senior Caine Watlington to return Clarkston’s lead to a three-score spread.

“Clarkston did a really good job of playing a great football game. They deserved the victory,” Catholic Central coach Tom Mach said.

“They had the ball an awful long time and we couldn’t get the ball back. We started off a little out of sync in the first quarter. Things were open, but we weren’t hitting them. Then they took over with their offense and they did a great job of controlling the football and driving it down to keep it away from us.”

With its loss, Catholic Central (11-3) became the first team since Utica Eisenhower (1999-2001) to lose three consecutive Division 1 championship games.

The Shamrocks were held to a modest 124 yards rushing, atypical of their usual output on the ground.

For the Wolves, Zezula finished the game 10-of-15 for 154 yards. Clarkston’s defense made a significant number of impact plays, with key sacks by David Beedle, Nick Matich and Eriksen. Tim Cason also recorded an important interception in the red zone that denied the Shamrocks of points on their opening possession of the game.

“(Winning a title) has obviously been our goal for a long time,” Richardson concluded. “We wanted to bring our program to that point. Winning breeds winning and this obviously helps our program to stay strong.”